WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Sean Simone and Ryan McLaughlin, two seniors in the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, placed third in the team category at the second annual State Farm Sales and Marketing Competition, which was held November 12 at the University of Central Missouri. McLaughlin also took second overall in the individual marketing category.
For the competition, each student competed in both sales and marketing phases of the competition and were challenged to market and sell State Farm auto insurance products to young adults.
Carl Herrick, an LSU adjunct faculty member and Department of Marketing Executive-In-Residence, state he is very proud of the team’s performance.
“This is a dramatic improvement over last year when the team didn’t challenge for a top three finish,” Herrick said. “We’re just beginning our sales curriculum at LSU with just 15 students enrolled in my sales communication course this year.”
According to Herrick, the sales program at the University of Houston, which placed second in the overall team competition this year, has had a full sales program for more than 10 years with a student enrollment of more than 700 annually.
“I can only imagine how successful we will be if we’re able to secure the funding needed to grow our efforts into a true program here at LSU,” Herrick said.
State Farm executives in attendance, including Senior Vice-President Rand Harbert, voiced how impressed they were with the LSU team’s performance. According to Herrick, two State Farm representatives who judged the sales portion of the competition told him that they actually selected Simone as their top pick in his round of the competition.
In March 2011, McLaughlin and Simone represented LSU in its first visit to the National Collegiate Sales Competition, which is held annually at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta.
“These two Tigers are tremendous young men who compete well and continually demonstrate poise and professionalism,” Herrick said of McLaughlin and Simone. “Both of them already own businesses, have very bright futures and are a pleasure to coach.”
Local State Farm representatives, including Field Marketing Analyst Roz Moore, Learning and Development Specialist Julie Bowe and Agent Todd Husers also played key roles in preparing the LSU team to shine in this year’s competition.
“We want to thank them and State Farm Insurance for their invitation, hospitality, pre-event resources, coaching and encouragement” Herrick said.
The Department of Marketing at LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business prepares its students for careers in management, advertising, buying, product development, retailing and sales. Through its Internship in Marketing Program, students are able to apply the concepts and principles of the classroom and earn course credit for their practical work experience. For more information, visit http://www.bus.lsu.edu/marketing/ or call 225-578-8684.
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